An Interdisciplinary Arts & Literature Group

Category Archives: 2013 Program

Helga Parekh is a writer, artist, sculptor, potter, and a performer. She has published a self-made chapbook of her poem called ‘Learning from the Timeless Beauty Of a Tulip’ in 2016. Her poems have appeared in various publications, the latest being Saving Seeds (New West Writers, 2014), and her poems were the finalists in the Burnaby Writers Society annual writing contest in 2012. She has illustrated a children’s book ‘Ramya’s Stars’ by Mala Ashok. It was published by Pratham Books, a not-for-profit organization in India, in multiple Indian languages to promote reading among children. It is available in Hindi and English at the Surrey Libraries. Helga was a member of New West Writers, a member and sometimes facilitator of Renaissance Book Writers. She is a Core group member of Surrey Muse since 2012, and she is the Group Facilitator of Surrey Muse Writers. At this time, she is working on another book of poems that also may contain her illustrative art. In 2017, Helga completed the Southbank Writer’s Course at the SFU Surrey campus.

Joy is a poet, playwright and writer. Born in Belize, raised in Alberta and North Vancouver, Joy also lived in London, England for many years. Her writing explores the convergence of history, memory, and the present, as well as the tensions between grand and small narratives. She currently lives in North Vancouver.

Joy’s poems and writings have been published in various journals and anthologies, including The Best Canadian Poetry in English 2008, Canadian Literature, Bluesprint: Black British Columbian Literature and Orature, IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, and Beyond the Pale: Dramatic Writing from First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour. Her writing also appears in The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry, which was launched in Vancouver as part of Black History Month in 2013. Her first play, Days of Old, is a site-specific PodPlay which focuses on Hogan’s Alley, the location of Vancouver’s first black community, and was part of PodPlays 125 (Neworld Theatre and PTC) for Vancouver’s 125th anniversary celebration.

While in London, Joy played in the Afro-Brazilian band Afro-Bloco, worked in community arts, and as an assistant producer and researcher for television documentaries such as American Master’s Rebel Music: The Bob Marley Story, Pump Up The Volume, a history of house music, and the BAFTA-nominated, The Hip Hop Years.

Joy’s art and writing is inspired by her mother and father who showed her the power of words, the world of color, and the gift of courage and compassion.

Lenore is an award-winning poet. She is also an essayist, dramatist, short-story writer and novelist. Born and raised in Toronto, she now lives in Vancouver.

Lenore’s poems, essays and short stories have been published in several magazines and journals including The New Quarterly, Geist Magazine, Other Voices, and in the anthologies the Best Canadian Poetry (Tightrope Books 2010) and Poet to Poet (Guernica Editions 2012). Herchildren’s poetry collection, Love Letters, won the Gold Medal from the Moonbeam Childrens’ Book Awards in 2007. Her creative non-fiction essay “Flat Champagne” was nominated for a CBC Literary Award in 2009. Her play, The Woods at Tender Creek,was produced and staged at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in 2010 as part of the Walking Fish Festival.

Lenore writes on a range of subjects but particularly on mental health. She is the co-editor of and a contributor to Hidden Lives: Coming Out on Mental Illness, a collection of essays on mental illness published in 2012. She touches again on mental health in her debut novel, Cluck, which was a finalist in the Great BC Novel Contest (2013).

Lenore’s major artistic inspiration is her sister Beth who is also a writer.

Kagan Goh is an award-winning documentary film-maker, writer, poet, journalist and mental-health activist. Born in Singapore, Kagan studied film in Toronto at Ryerson Polytechnical University. He currently lives in Vancouver.

Kagan’s poetry has been published in Alive at the Centre, Strike the Wok: An Anthology of Contemporary Chinese Canadian Fiction and Henry Chow and Other Stories. He is a recognized spoken word poet and has participated in poetry readings at the Asian Heritage Month, Word on the Street and as a featured poet on CBC Radio’s “Poetry Face Off.” He can be heard frequently on Co-Op Radio and CBC.

Kagan’s poems speak to mental health, an issue which he strives to educate others about. As an actor, Kagan was part of the “Now Who’s talking Recovery Theatre” troupe which wrote and produced humorous plays on the otherwise serious subject of fighting stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness.

Kagan’s book Who Let in the Sky?, published in Singapore, is a memoir on the relationship between a son and his father, Kagan’s own father, Goh Poh Seng who in the last 15 years of his life battled Parkinsons disease with an undiminished love of life. A poet, writer and dramatist in his own right, Goh Poh Seng remains one of Kagan’s major artistic influences.

As a film-maker, Kagan’s made the award-winning documentary film on the phone sex industry, Mind Fuck. Kagan also wrote, directed and co-produced the documentaries Stolen Memories and Breaking the Silence both which look at the impact and legacy of the internment of Japanese-Canadians. Breaking the Silence premiered at the Roundhouse Community Centre on March 25, 2012 and both documentaries were screened as part of the Asian-Heritage Month in 2012 at the University of British Columbia. Kagan also has his own film-making company, Monkeyking Motion Pictures.

Kevan Anthony Cameron, also known as Scruffmouth is a poet, editor and performer. Kevan was born in Edmonton to Jamaican parents. He received his bachelor’s degee from Simon Fraser University, which included him participating in the SFU Ghana Field School in 2011.

Kevan is a well-known face on the local and North American poetry slam scene. His poems have been published in We Have a Voice: An Anthology of African and Caribbean Student Writing in BC, Blood Ink: A University of Alberta Literary Journal and Sudden Thunder: Spring 2011 Anthology. He has released several chapbooks, including The Seventh Sense (2007), Pan Africanism Is Dead (2008), Choose Your Revolution (2008), New Word Order (2009), Elementality (2010) and Mash It Up (2012). He has released a CD of spoken word poetry Ruff Draft and is currently working on his debut album, Spoken Notebook.

Kevan is also the co-editor of and a contributing poet to The Great Black North: Contemporary African Canadian Poetry (2013) which was launched in Vancouver as part of Black History Month in 2013. Kevan’s poems speak on self, identity, social justice, freedom and the stories of peoples of African descent both locally and internationally. His goal is to “edutain” his audience which he does through a powerful, rhythmic reading of history and philosophy through poetry.

Kevan is also a creative director for Black Dot Roots and Culture Collective through which he educates young people and adults through the spoken word and poems celebrating the heritage of peoples of African ancestry. He has also contributed as a board member of the Black Canadian Studies Association and Spoken Word Canada and for projects like Hogan’s Alley Poetry Festival and the annual Pan African Slam. Kevan was crowned as the Grand Slam Champion of the Vancouver Poetry Slam in 2008.

As a performer, Kevan has appeared in the TV-movie Fallen, the motion-picture Love Happens and the internet web series, White Collar Poet.

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Thoughts

'It was a wonderful evening: at least two more lonesome Surrey writers have found a new home, and a few more of us outlanders a place to return to.

I really appreciate the careful structure of the event, alternating the visiting time with times of performance, so that all needs are met with decorum-- all performers have an attentive audience, everyone can eat and speak and connect, and community develops almost effortlessly. The blog and the truly awesome posters a part of the whole-- really well organized and top-notch!

My thanks for all the forethought and talent that went into the planning, as well as the way it all came together last night-- thank you to our mc for keeping us rolling along.